Class of 2017

Covering “Cooum”

Normally, no one would be interested in the “cooum” of our city. Well, sadly, that was my assignment. I had to report on the condition of “Buckingham canal” that does not exist in its true form anymore.

Well in Chennai traffic, nothing else can replace a two wheeler. But my journey was partly in the mrts, which I did not like, and the other half was by my scooter. So hot so soon, my skin was burning. It is easy for people sitting inside air conditioned cars to honk at two wheelers. Trust me, only we feel the “true heat”.

Parts of my mrts journey was fun, all I had to do was look at the cooum from the train and see if there were any clogs due to garbage. Nasty as it sounds, the stench was unbearable. I had to keep staring at the dirty stream of water with shit and muck on top of it being carried away. On top of everything, I had to take a bloody picture of it.

The second part was fun; I took my scooter around the city, searching for cooum anywhere and everywhere. Wherever I found one, I got down and started clicking pictures. It got me nothing but awkward stares from people. My inner voice then said, “They are going to judge you anyway, so don’t bother”.

The roads were pathetic and I was very scared about my scooter tires getting punctured. The path was full of garbage stink, broken glasses, alcohol bottles and shit. And I was also scared to go alone into the abandoned areas, inner voice pops up “Somebody is stalking you, be prepared” and all that.

Overall, Buckingham canal definitely did not look like how it was portrayed in “Madrasapattinam movie”.